£4m in debt, Gordon Ramsay shuts Cape Tow restaurant

Gordon Ramsay has suffered another business blow with the closure of Maze, his exclusive Cape Town restaurant. It comes a year after the fiery TV chef was forced to close another branch of Maze in Prague.

Gordon Ramsay: Was rarely at the Cape Town restaurant.

Sources at Maze Cape Town said that Ramsay, who was employed as a consultant, was rarely at the five-star restaurant, set within the luxurious One&Only hotel complex.

It is the latest setback for the chef who has lost some of his most prestigious restaurants in the past two years, including Petrus and the Boxwood Cafe at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, Central London, and his self-named restaurant at the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair. In America, he has reverted to a consulting role at his three restaurants in Los Angeles and New York.

Ramsay revealed earlier this year he was £4.3m in debt and told how he had poured £5m into his business empire at the end of 2008 to stop it from collapsing into administration.

Sources in Cape Town say that Maze was shut down at midnight on Thursday.

Ramsay, who was at its launch in April 2009, had visited two months ago when he was made aware it was experiencing financial problems.

The restaurant apparently struggled within months of opening, leading to crisis talks between Ramsay and Sol Kerzner, the hotel and gambling magnate who owns the One&Only group. A source said: 'Ramsay Holdings and Mr Kerzner had meetings to discuss the situation. Both parties realised it wasn't working.'

At midnight on Thursday, Mr Kerzner gave instructions for the restaurant to be closed down. The source added: 'Nobu is next door and is always thriving, but Ramsay's place was mostly empty. The problem is that when people did come, they wanted to know that Ramsay would be there, or at least that he had overseen the menu. The fact is he was never there and that was the problem.'

The 170-seat restaurant is considered the jewel in the crown at Cape Town's prestigious Waterfront complex.

With views of Table Mountain, the restaurant was modelled on Ramsay's successful Maze in London's Grosvenor Square.

An industry insider said Ramsay - who is currently appearing in the hit American version of Masterchef, which launched last week - was not to blame for the closure.

'It has been well reported that the hotel isn't doing well and that Maze suffered as a result,' said the insider.

'It was doing breakfast, lunch and dinner, unlike Nobu which only serves dinner, so the two can't be compared. Ramsay still feels Maze as a brand is a success. He is consulting for Maze in Doha while Maze in London and the newly opened one in Melbourne are doing very well.'

Gordon Ramsay Holdings said: 'GRH Ltd is purely a consultant to Maze, One&Only, Cape Town. We were aware the hotel has been having difficulties but they only informed us of their decision to close Maze this morning.

'We will review our contractual agreement with them. Maze restaurants in the UK and around the world are performing well, with the recent opening of Maze, Melbourne, exceeding expectations.'